Therefore, it was but natural that he should recover swiftly from his momentary halt, and step aside to throw open the door of a little room on the right of the hall.

Bowing slightly, he invited her to enter.
"Grant me a moment ere I go, Hortensia," he said, between command and exhortation.
She stood cogitating him an instant, with no outward sign of what might be passing in her mind; then she slightly inclined her head, and went forward as he bade her.
It was a sunny room, gay with light color and dainty furnishings, having long window-doors that opened to the garden.

An Aubusson carpet of palest green, with a festoon pattern of pink roses, covered two-thirds of the blocked, polished floor.

The empanelled walls were white, with here a gilt mirror, flanked on either side by a girandole in ormolu.

A spinet stood open in mid-chamber, and upon it were sheets of music, a few books and a bowl of emerald-green ware, charged now with roses, whose fragrance lay heavy on the air.